Why do Republicans hate babies?

Bravo Jane!

I got so tired of the way the media played this vote in Venezuela. Along with a bunch of really interesting proposals for the company, it simply removed term limits - it would not have made Chavez president for life but that’s sure not how it was played here.

And of course they never mentioned our coup attempt against Chavez back in ‘02

(nor do they mention the coup of Bush, eh?)

Chavez is portrayed as a thug but the thuggish behavior of the Bush administration is rarely noted in any clarified way by the traditional media. Thankfully there is at least a Charlie Savage to point out Bush’s thuggish tendencies.

Poor David Gregory, however is clutching his pearls over the political “polarization” caused by the blogs. Whiny ass titty baby. Grow up David and detox from the Villagers.

If you compare W and El Hugo directly to each other, W comes off as less Democratic and less sympathetic to the needs of his people, but not by a wide margin. But if you compare W to US constitutional traditions and to his predecessors as US President, and Hugo Chavez to Venezuelan constitutional traditions and to Chavez’s predecessors as Venezuelan president, Bush is by far the most dictatorial.

Jane! Excellent comparative poli-sci.

This is the Cuba bullshit played out all over again;

Wonderful, idyllic, workers paradise destroyed by perverted commie.

All those decades and decades of the poor and blue-collar Venezuealans being fucked over by a political oligarchy of fatcats, profiting handsomely from the country’s oil, while leaving the dregs to trickle down, not to be mentioned.

Well, for some reason George still thinks he has a “mandate”. The 2006 election says he doesn’t.

Hiya again, Jane…

I vote for Shrubco.

View this users Facebook profile AZ Matt December 3rd, 2007 at 9:57 am
6

Well, for some reason George still thinks he has a “mandate”. The 2006 election says he doesn’t.

Insert Gannon joke here.

Is the intelligence community fed up with Bush too?

Breaking news from the NY Times.

A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb.

and

In a separate statement accompanying the N.I.E., Deputy Director of National Intelligence Donald M. Kerr said that given the new conclusions, it was important to release the report publicly “to ensure that an accurate presentation is available.”

This story should put a crimp in the Bush/Cheney plans to attack Iran.

[mod note; Along with other breaking news, this topic can be discussed in the FDL news section.]

I hate to bring this up, but I find the new site to be unreadable so I’ve switched to the RSS feed. Unfortunately the outsourced feedburner feed is no longer updating, blah. Just blah. Hate to see the good content lost in a horrid design (I know it’s not my site, but that’s my 2 cents. All I’ll say on this matter).

Nicely framed.

Jane

Thank you so much.

From Kerr’s statement:

The decision to release an unclassified version of the Key Judgments of this NIE was made when
it was determined that doing so was in the interest of our nation’s security. The Intelligence
Community is on the record publicly with numerous statements based on our 2005 assessment on
Iran. Since our understanding of Iran’s capabilities has changed, we felt it was important to
release this information to ensure that an accurate presentation is available. While the decision
to release the declassified Key Judgments was coordinated in discussion with senior policy
makers, the IC took responsibility for what portions of the NIE Key Judgments were to be
declassified.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/p…..tement.pdf
Sounds like a whole bunch o peeps over at Langley are off the reservation. Boy, would I like to be a fly on Cheney’s wall round about now.

Busted,

I refrained myself making that joke though it did cross my mind. *g*

By mandate, did you mean Karl Rove?

Doubles previous estimate of extent of communications improperly deleted
They could be anything from spam offering male enhancement to furtive exchanges of political strategy with convicted lobbyists, but observers say the White House deleted more than twice as many e-mails as previous estimates, bringing the total number of missing communications involving administration aides like Karl Rove and others to higher than 10 million.

Article here.

The vote in Venezuela this past weekend was democratic. The vote in Russia this past weekend was rigged. The vote in the US in 2000 was rigged. The vote in the US in 2004 might have been rigged.

I seem not to be able to link. The email article is over at Raw Story.

Here’s the pdf of the Iran NIE.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/p…..elease.pdf

Cheney is duck hunting in Arkansas today. I wonder if they waited for him to leave town before announcing Iran, I repeat, Iran is not a threat.

I betcha there are a few broken coffee cups in the Office of the VP today.

-GSD

or a flea on his chest… what a ride! oogh…

OK. What gives with the dupe postings?

-G

Hey Jane. can you people indulge me off topic for a moment. I just looked at that video in the magin here with Helen Thomas and Dana Perino. The only thing that comes to my mind is “dumb as dogshit.” I think that would be a swell nickname. Dana “Dumb as Dogshit” Perino.

Thank you. Back on topic.

Cheney is duck hunting in Arkansas today. I wonder if they waited for him to leave town before announcing Iran, I repeat, Iran is not a threat.

Oy, I wouldn’t want to be hunting with him when he gets the call on his cell that the story has broken. And whatever, the other hunters do, they should not yell “duck.”

I’m wondering if the Bush side of the prezidnazi leaked this to protect W from Cheenee; thus, an attempt at protecting his legacy…from getting any worse than it already is.

Great analogy and title that speaks volumes, Jane.

Cohen: Chavez’s Venzuela

In a separate statement accompanying the N.I.E., Deputy Director of National Intelligence Donald M. Kerr said that given the new conclusions, it was important to release the report publicly “to ensure that an accurate presentation is available.”

The truth is not in Bush–CNN’s already reporting back to Bush’s over-reaching statements about Iran. Can the yellowcake be far behind? May we just say, the truth is not in Bush.

Wonder whom Chee-knee’s marked for Plaming on this one?

OT,
I found one cheat here already.
When you want to go to the Home Page, just scroll a little down past the comment box and click on Log In.
It takes you to the main page.
Saves time.

Thanks!

The misdeeds of Chavez are less serious than those of Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea or Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan — so let’s see, what is the operative difference? Wait, doesn’t Chavez oppose the interests of our big oil companies? While the others do not? Could that be why he is demonized by our media and the object of a covert intelligence war? Wait, that would mean that we are using “democracy” as a fig leaf for acting in the interests of our oil interests! So, of course, that could not be!

Yay Jane! As I said downthread a referendum that is voted does not exactly sound like The Machtergreifung. And I thank eCAHN for this link.. Because we need to be able to look at Chavez with clear eyes, not rosy-tainted and not with all the commie hating dreck that MSM can spew out.

cool! Thanks!

now, kind soul. Help me poke doggies who might know something about whether Vista Windows has any trubble with FDL, pretty please?

Here’s a link to the Brian Lehrer segment on this topic this morning. Brain seems to think, along with MSM, that Chavez was trying to become a dictator. Brian is usually more up to speed than that. The segment has some moderately interesting points and the guests are pretty good.
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/e…..ents/89709

The interesting thing about Venezuela is that the people responded to the attempted coup and restored Chavez, their elected leader to office. I wonder if, under similar circumstances, we in the US could manage the energy to do the same. As for Bush v Chavez, they both seem egomaniacial. Chavez has poor people in mind while Bush is absorbed with the wealthy. That makes Chavez less malignant in my book.

Sorry Adie.
Beyond the reach of my many hammers.

Every time I show up, I am “welcomed back.” Don’t have to login.

okeydoke. thanx for answ.

Ed Zachary.

Meanwhile, CNN reporting on Brad Pitt’s new NOLAventure. While Dubya p*ssed away the national treasury on his codpiece war on Iraq, nothing’s happened in the Ninth Ward…no schools for children to attend. Big appeal coming from Pitt for help.

BushCo–a Profile in Crony Corruption and hide behind the troops Cowardice.

OT

…Made it! Finally registered! Many futile attempts…Much worth it!

I’m stuck with an experimental username, but wot the hay…

New FDL, new Emptywheel and TRex…the big bad blog bash rolls on…

Chavez was simply asking for the people to vote to allow him to run again. He was not abolishing elections. Dictators don’t hold elections or run them without an opposing candidate as Saddam did.

Brian Lehrer is not up to speed or simply a victim of the MSM swill.

Never believe anything the MSM says on face value.

From the Boston Globe signing statements article…..”Bush also challenged a new law that limits his ability to transfer funds lawmakers approved for one purpose to start a different program, as well as a law requiring him to keep in place an existing command structure for the Navy’s Pacific fleet.”

Hmmmm….now, I may be wrong, but doesn’t the existing command structure of the Navy go to the VP????? Is Bush challenging Dick???

that sounds creepy. who’s watching you, sweetie? who else?? and so on, and so on…

ah this modern age. in the ’60s I was laboriously hand-punching little notches in the edges of computer cards for a prof’s research project at an humungous, leading-edge U.

look at us now. flying blind…. mebbe if we form a V like geese, it would help…

wheeeeeeeeee………..

See also Scarecrow’s thread on Iraqi Christians [the 60 Minutes piece] earlier this morning….

BushCo specializes in smash-and-grab governing. Destroy or diminish everything they touch.

Demand better. Be better.

Cheney is duck hunting in Arkansas today. I wonder if they waited for him to leave town before announcing Iran, I repeat, Iran is not a threat.

I guess he brought his own ducks and booze. There are no ducks, weather is too warm; and Lonoke Co is dry.

Good morning everyone :). LOVE the new place Jane and all, I’ll take a walk round later :)

Now that I feel all at home and stuff,, OT already :):)

Reading about the struggle in Russia for the ‘people’ to have a voice made me think…

There are a LOT of ‘ordinary’ people world-wide fighting (and dying) for the right to have a voice. Imagine if we could all just ‘talk’ to each other. We’d have our Jane, Christy and our ‘Heavenly Hippies’, ‘talking’ with their ‘Jane, Christy and their Heavenly Hippies’. The internet has given the ‘world’ a voice and it could become a roar….nice.

By Robert Coalson for RFE/RL (03/12/07)

‘There is an “election” going on in Russia. Not an election, but an “election.” This is not an election that falls short of international standards. It is not a democratic, a flawed-democratic, or even a pseudo-democratic process. According to a recent RFE/RL poll, nearly two-thirds of voting age Russians don’t believe the elections will be conducted honestly. Nearly half say if they do vote, it will be out of a sense of “duty.”

The Kremlin, regardless, is expending considerable effort to create the illusion of a democratic process, with the Kremlin-controlled election agencies, the Kremlin-controlled legislature, and the Kremlin-controlled media, which constantly intones the mantra that Russia is following its own democratic path, that the country has a reliable democratic system. “We don’t need helpers in organizing elections like in Africa or Kosovo,” a Central Election Commission member said in October. “We have an established democratic system.”‘

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/

We have a function dictatorship because we have a rubber stamp congress and a roll over opposition party, an executive which follows the laws passed as THEY want to, won’t reveal the inner workings of the executive.

We are a fig leaf democracy with a rah rah press which is practically a dictatorship. No accountability means no democracy.

While the decision
to release the declassified Key Judgments was coordinated in discussion with senior policy
makers, the IC took responsibility for what portions of the NIE Key Judgments were to be
declassified.

So they received permission to release a declassified summary…but WHICH portions THEY DECIDED TO DO WITHOUT CONTACTING BUSHCO!

Very interesting!

Bush is clearly a dick. He’s working mighty hard on the tater part too.

-GSD

P.S.

Breaking News: Al Qaeda active in Afghanistan. Sec. Def. Slappy Gates has an epiphany.

Not good news for the Ivory Billed woodpecker then.

flying blind…. mebbe if we form a V like geese, it would help…

You know, when geese fly in a V, one side is always longer than the other. Do you know why?

Link…..

-G

Bush is clearly a dick. He’s working mighty hard on the tater part too.

-GSD

There’s a super tuber joke in there somewhere…

Seems to me the rationale on invading Iran was changed from WMD to deploying terrarists over the border into Iraq. I don’t think this report will deter them from bombing Iran.

Yep–automatically, unless you log out.

Also: site is a little jerky for me at the moment, and sometimes it freezes.

The techies have a lot of glitches to work out. As for readability (pace puppet head), we’ll all soon used to it. The human organism resists changes–but everything changes. It’s called life. For instance: Chimpy will soon be gone permanently and we won’t have him to kick around any more.

aerodynamics or psychiehonkics?

Can we have the EDIT feature back. pretty please

Yep–automatically, unless you log out.

Aha, that explains that. Jane, is there any reason from your POV why we should logout? I never do.

They don’t address the longer side, but this little article seems apropos:

http://www.learningfountain.com/flyform.htm

For instance: Chimpy will soon be gone permanently and we won’t have him to kick around any more.

Drop him off on my block,I’ll handle it.

Busharraf is very proud and works very hard in becoming the ‘bestest’ dictator. See?

cookies cookies cookies

By this time next year, we’ll have a REALLY clear idea of the differences between Bush and Chavez. I doubt that anybody reading FDL would be completely surprised if something happened to thwart the electoral process in the next year or thirteen months.

We’ll all be quite pleased if Bush totters quietly off to become Commissioner of Baseball (for which the White House is obviously a steppingstone). But I, for one, will not be astonished if for one reason or another Bush, or Cheney, or some neocon puppet ends up in charge of the U.S. in February 2009, with elections held in abeyance for that happy future day when victory can be declared over terrorism.

demi (if you’re here):

Check your Facebook…

TMI. Mine was a joke. The leg of the V that is longer is so because there are more birds in it.

But I’ll check out your reference to actually learn something. Thanks.

cc,

Had the same problem myself. When you click on the link it will show up in the repsonse box but not retain the second box that allows you to write in the title on your link. What you have to do is go the the link showing in your comment box and type in between “>. For example: >The Raw Story. Then when you submit your comment the link will show up.

And, is anyone else having trouble using “Preview”?

OK. What gives with the dupe postings?

This happens when you double click the “Click here to load [new comments]!” link. Click it once, not twice.

LS,
I think I understand what you’re asking here. IIRC, the VP is considered in charge of the Navy WHEN they are in port in the CONUS. The Pacific Fleet command structure is probably outside of that but would be something Darth would prol’ly like to change.

Of course, I amy also be an id10t.

Yo, Jane, the new blog is too high bandwidth. Can hardly read it anymore, and I have cable modem.

Adie - we’ve tested Vista and found no problems. You might try clearing your cache?

If folks have specific problems with the new site, please drop us a line at my FDL email - media dot firedoglake at gmail dot com with “Bug Report” in the subject line and I’ll check the issues out with Jamie.

Given the past behavior of the Demo leadership, the Republicans would be clinically insane if they didn’t try to steal as much as they can in 2008.

cc,

Damn that didn’t show up. There: > between these symbols < a / >.

On linking - here’s an easier way:

Type in the text you want to show as the link. For example:

type “google”

the select that text and click the little link icon in the bar at the top of the comment box (it’s between the quote and the spellcheck) and when the link popup appears, just paste in the link and you get this:

google

I’m shocked!!!

CREW: White House lost at least 10 million e-mails

link

What is the thing next to the “link” that looks like an umbilical cord clamp?

If folks have specific problems with the new site, please drop us a line at my FDL email - media dot firedoglake at gmail dot com with “Bug Report” in the subject line and I’ll check the issues out with Jamie.
reply

Well, I finally figured out the blockquote gizmo.
Paste and highlite what you want to quote and THEN hit the quote marks, does it for you, just like Blogger.

If you link to Google it should always be to “GoogleSSR” or “Google SSR” (or GSSR for that matter if you want to save space) - it’s much more fitting then Google or Googleplex, and also ties in well with all the totalitarian talk - especially with ads by doubleclick.

Nice new digs. Best of luck.

Hugh - EPU’ing will never fade away. Evah. Ponies for me (as always).

I hate to admit that I actually kind of miss The Spinning Wheel Of Doom.

I hate to bring this up, but I find the new site to be unreadable so I’ve switched to the RSS feed. Unfortunately the outsourced feedburner feed is no longer updating, blah. Just blah. Hate to see the good content lost in a horrid design (I know it’s not my site, but that’s my 2 cents. All I’ll say on this matter).

I couldn’t read it either, till TexBetsy pointed out that you can make it larger with control + (or apple key?). Helps!

Thank you Siun. We don’t have it yet - should in a few days, and we have abundant knowledgeable techie support from sweet sweet guy in our family, so I guess I should stop worrying. He’s promised to dash right over & get us up and running smoothly with the pack.

I just thot I’d heard rumors that Vista was kinda hard to get used to, and I was fearing problems. my silly geriatric worry-wartiness acting up agin, i guess…

p.s., I’m so happy to see you having a larger presence at the Lake. I hope all is going as smoothly as possible for you. Figure it must be huge pressure at the moment. You’re a treasure! ;->

You can’t lose emails.

Blue Texan is upstairs

Same here. That’s when I know a new post is going up, then I rush to go grab the zed…

Figures, I make a crack about the wheel of doom;

Oh my. I hope one of the FDLakers didn’t leave one of their unmentionables in there. LOL Just kidding…

Here it is;

Well, you can if you’re putting your emails through the RNC servers. See? Nothing gets recorded that way and the hard drives can be encased in cement and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. This is how all republic presidents do business. It’s very Mob-like.

trying something

ok.

Fear not. Unless the Iranians do something stupid
w/Israel the neo-cons are out in the cold looking in.
Poppy’s people have taken over US foreign policy.

This isn’t the Cheney/Bush administration anymore.

Since the blue wave of ‘06 it’s been the (James)Baker/Bush
admin…

The thing that worries me is that I often see - in the Israeli press - editorials complaining that the US is being too slow on Iran and boasting that Israel may just have to show Uncle Sam how it’s done.

Today’s news certainly helps - a lot - but the dynamic is still messy.

“Preview” doesn’t “preview”, period. It just shows you what you already had. So, no, you don’t find out whether your HTML works properly before you submit. It also uses the same window for the ‘preview’ display as for the typing, so even if it did show the result of interpreting your tags, you still couldn’t edit and update conveniently. (Trying to keep a lid on, here …)

well, aren’t you proud?!

(i was doin’ a lot of that yestidie. & i think we have plenty company, heh)

It’s happening to me with one click.

thanks. i figured that might be the case. calm down. breathe deeply.
there y’go. ;->

damn, already epu’d

It’s a gift.

It’s just that it got a lot smaller and lives in the middle of the commenting window; it also turns the other way, as far as I remember.

Then maybe the problem is browser specific. I’m using a mac and FireFox and preview has been working jut fine. I get the draft comment displayed between “Leave your response” and the comment box. and it has shown any links, bold, whatever just as it shows in the thread once submitted.

I’m finding that just about every blog I’ve been on today is loading slowly. I have Firefox and DSL (mine is pretty damn fast too).

But I do very much like Google.S.S.R. and hope it catches on. I just wanted to throw it out into the blogosphere for priority once all the kewl kids are using it (of course that assumes it’s original, which it may not be, but nothing showed up on the first page of a googleSSR search).

Google was asked by an analyst about the amount of energy their servers consume, and the response was basically that that information is a state secret. Like a Soviet republic, nothing is ever wrong in googleland, or public.

It’s just that I’ve been doing this beta-test stuff for, what, two or three decades, and when stuff that wasn’t broken in version x is broken in (x+1) …

I ain’t clickin nothin I don’t know about yet.
Jes happily lurkin and lettin other pups mess up first.
Oh, btw, anyone see my tshirt? I think I left it at the old site.
It’s the one with the peace sign….oh nevermind.

Adie, I run Vista on my laptop and FDL looks and feels exactly the same on it as it does on my XP desktop.

It’s happening to me with one click.

Do a browser level refresh and then single click. That should clear the problem (unless there’s actually something else at work here).

Then maybe the problem is browser specific. I’m using a mac and FireFox and preview has been working jut fine. I get the draft comment displayed between “Leave your response” and the comment box. and it has shown any links, bold, whatever just as it shows in the thread once submitted.

With both XP and Vista, using Firefox and IE, the preview is not working for me. Hasn’t since the switchover.

Behindthefall - we’ve reviewed the issues you’ve raised - in fact, we worked on that yesterday. If I recall, you are using Opera as your browser. Please empty your cache and then try again. Opera has a number of issues which may lead to the problems you’re having.

Preview text shows directly above your comment box by the way and we’ve changed the text to make sure it is more visible than it was when we launched on Saturday.

Bilbo,
Come over from the darkside and join us in the light (Mac OS)!

By the way, even with the proposed “sweeping changes”, Chavez would still be less of a dictator than George W. Bush:

The Venezuelan government’s effort to create “21st century socialism” is moving ahead full-steam with the December 2nd constitutional reform referendum. While tensions and confusion about the reform are rising in Venezuela, it is important to realize that this reform will mean both less and more than most outside observers seem to think. That is, as usual, many pundits, such as from the Venezuelan opposition and from so-called international experts, are painting a picture of a Venezuela that is about to finally slip into “Castro-communism,” a picture that could hardly be further from the truth and that has been falsely predicted for Chavez’s entire presidency of now nine years. While there are negative or not-so-good aspects of the reform, which for the most part involve giving the president some more powers, the Venezuelan president, even after the reform, is still does not have as much institutional power as the U.S. president. On the other hand, in the process of focusing on the centralizing aspects of the reform, most observers willfully miss the ways in which the positive aspects of the upcoming reform have the potential to make Venezuelan political life more in tune with the interests of the country’s mostly poor majority.

[…]

This last point, about the reform giving the president the power to reorganize municipal boundaries, touches on the larger issue of the reform slightly strengthening the president’s powers in a variety of ways. Of course, the oppositional media (including the international pundits) consistently present this as “sweeping new powers,” without backing this up. The most controversial changes in this regard include the removal of the two-term limit on serving as president (art. 230). However, over half of the heads of government in the world have “sweeping power,” including some of the world’s most respected democracies, such as France, Germany, Britain, and Italy.

Removing the limit on the number of reelections and extending the presidential term from six to seven years (art. 230) are meant to strengthen the presidency in order to carry out the long-term project of Venezuela’s political and economic transformation from capitalism to socialism. In a way, opponents ought to be grateful that Chavez is not proposing a transition within his current presidential term (which lasts another five years), but a transition with a much longer time line, which would be far less traumatic and thus gives the opposition far more opportunities to reverse the project.

Extending Chavez’s presidency (if reelected) is a mixed problem, though. On the one hand, Chavez supporters are right to say that it is more democratic if citizens are free to elect whomever they choose, as often as they choose, without artificial limitations. On the other hand, supporters of this principle ought to address the main reason such unlimited reelections are often prohibited, which is that presidents tend to accumulate power and can use the advantages of their office to make it more difficult for challengers to eventually win the presidency. This would mean placing strict restrictions on using the office of the president in one’s presidential campaign. Currently limitations of this sort are rather limited in Venezuela.

The other controversial strengthening of the office of the president is the reform’s toughening of states of emergency. According to the reform, the right to being informed would be suspended during a state of emergency, which implies that censorship may be used in such situations (art. 337). The rationale for this is that the April 2002 coup attempt was based on manipulating the media to fabricate events that ended up justifying the coup. A state of emergency, according to Chavez supporters, would have to take such a course of events into account. Contrary to most news reports, though, the state of emergency still includes the right to defense, to a trial, to communication, and not to be tortured. This is more than one can say for the current situation in the U.S., where the president has the authority to arrest people without due process, according to the recently passed Military Commissions Act.

Dakine, to be honest, I’m really a UNIX kind of guy at heart.

In what way, Bilbo? What’s it not doing? (I’m using Firefox in an XP environment, BTW.)

Bush/Cheney Dicktater-coup’ed us first. Bush/Cheney wins.

PW, Preview is not reformatting my HTML. Clicking preview simply gives me the same window with the same raw HTML coding.

What is it about Latin America that freaks people out?
Other day I’m at work talking about Chavez and several of my colleagues were almost frothing at the mouth about how “we gotta do something” about him. I have witnessed this with allegedly progressive news people, Keith O comes to mind.
Same with Haiti and, to a lesser extent, Nicaragua since Daniel Ortega regained the presidency.
Yet, these are the same people that believe what we’re doing in Iraq is the crime of the century.
Go figure.

looks like text is taking an excursion.

All the more reason then as Mac OS X is unix based (although obviously modified such that most of us never see any of the underlying processes.

I’m should read like the contracted version of I am.

Ack! I just left a message saying that preview doesn’t work for me either (Mac running OS 10.4, Firefox, & am on fast DSL) but the message didn’t show up at all (or it’s far enough above that I didn’t see it). This new blog has got me all kerfluzzled.

Ack! I just left a message saying that preview doesn’t work for me either (Mac running OS 10.4, Firefox, & am on fast DSL) but the message didn’t show up at all (or it’s far enough above that I didn’t see it). This new blog has got me all kerfluzzled.

I have that happen (faulire to Preview) in all versions of Safari, but FireFox seems to do the Preview just fine. Clear caches, and upgrade to the latest FireFox would be my first suggestion.

why America has to be against Venezuela ? and Chavez? why we have to be against Russia ?and Putin ? BECAUSE THE NEOCONS CAN’T PUT THEIR STICKY FINGERS IN THESE COUNTRIES! AND THEY HAVE HYJACKED THE cONGRESS AND wHITE hOUSE ! SHAME !

I thought the MSM in unison told us that Chavez was a “dictator” that controlled “the levers of government” and that he “bought” his support by parsing out his oil wealth to the poor. How could this have happened?
Our fear now must be that Chavez will to turn north for advice. Just thinking about Bush advising Chavez on effectively using a cabal in the Supreme Court to stealing an election is scary enough.
What if Bush would school Chavez on operating with only a narrow majority in the legislature to subvert a constitution stripping away civil liberties, wiretapping and repealing habeus corpus, while ignoring the law with renditions and torture.
Can’t you just hear Bush condescendingly preaching to Chavez about the importance of secrecy in government? It would be hard for this prankish president to resist laughing at Chavez that he can’t even get term limits extended! Heck, half of Europe doesn’t have term limits! What kind of “dictator” is he?
Maybe Chavez needs to invade a country or two, his feeble 1% of GNP spending on his military is not going make him the darling of his corporations or military. Beef it up baby, would be Bush’s advice.
If Chavez could only make up to Bush, I am sure the U.S. leader could show him a thing or two about dishing out the dollars to stay in power. Bush would split a gut over Chavez’s attempt to “buy support” by spending on social programs vs. tax cuts for the wealthy and deficit spending for the military.
Bush is not the brightest, but our gentlemen C president would certainly be capable of lecturing Chavez not to be all too concerned about spreading the wealth widely. His 60% popular vote mandate in election after election is a waste of resources to our guy. Go for the 50.1%. Spend wisely.
Bush would tell him to stopping bragging about cutting poverty rates in half or getting new voters to actually participate in the future of their country. It is all for naught if the corporations, the wealth few, are not beating the drums for you.
Bush knows how to manipulate the masses. Chavez must be in awe. A year after 9/11, some 70% of the U.S. thought Saddam was responsible for 9/11! Now that is control of the media!
Just think of all that wasted time working with the legislature who took the original 33 reforms and added to them, then he wasted almost two months — from Aug. 16 to Oct. 7 — with some 9,020 public events, during which more than 10 million copies of the reforms were distributed and one poll found some 70% of the Venezuelan people read them. Informing the public??? These third-world presidents have much to learn from our guy.
Bush could help him be much more effective with just one suggestion. Get one of his wealthy supporters to buy a major television outlet with supporting newspapers and media, then blast the propaganda. Forget about informing the people.
Even Chavez can see it was much cleaner when the U.S. backed dictators controlled Latin America and reigned through terror. Our wealthy guys working with their wealthy guys to err… get wealthier. If you wanted something done, they didn’t need no damn referendum. If would have been a cocktail party joke to speak of “term limits.” Oh for the good ole days!
This democracy stuff is messy with no certain results. If only Chavez would emulate Bush, Latin America would go back to the good times. Please Chavez, don’t look north for ideas…
I don’t see that happening. While our propagandists make Chavez out to be the “dictator,” the left is winning election after election in Latin America. Funny, we don’t hear or read the same vindictives directed towards the socialist president of Chile, Morales or Correa. The propagandist need one guy they can pinpoint. Remind you of anyone? This tactic is well practiced. As a side note, you won’t see them write much about the U.S.-backed Columbia government that has been decimated with corruption while Bush lavishes millions in aid on them.
How sad and ironic to read our media preach to the Venezuelan people about what they should do and how their duly elected president is a “dictator.” It seems our corporate controlled media knows no bounds when it comes to exposing their hypocrisy.
The U.S. backed oligarchies of the past are under attack from ironically– democracy. Get used to it.

The US is the biggest oil customer of Hugo Chavez and Venzuelan oil distributors at $100 million per year.

That makes US citizens one of the more potent forces that is supporting and promoting one Hugo Chavez.

You won’t see any press releases or mention by any Bush administration official of this fact.

I wonder why.

Meanwhile, Americans continue to pay homage to their National Horse–the Hummer and the S.U.V. which helps make Chavez and his coterie rich.

In a perfect metaphor for the U.S.’s prodigious financial support for Mr. Chavez, Passive Pelosi who speaks with big tough stick and delivers next to nothing of substantive legislation, proudly announced an agreement(at least in the House) between Herself majesty Big Nancy Pelosi and John Dingle of Michigan to force Amerian automakers to a standard of 35 m.p.g. in yup. thirteen years!:

Regime Cafe Rules Suck

This means Chavez is assured continued support of Passive Pelosi and the American Congress if this bill even passes for a very long time.

Meanwhile Toyota, the maker of the Prius the Land Cruiser, the Tundra, and many other gas guzzling BATs (Big Ass Trucks)continues to lobby fiercely against milage standards with the support of the Bush administration who has never supported any realistic fuel efficiency measures but prefers to posture with distant remedies like hydrogen fuel.

A big H/T to Tweetie Bird Mathews who is breathlessly showcasing all the me-toos who are piling on the train to say they did have sex with that man (as opposed to “Ah did not have sex with that woman” Larry Craig.

Not one mention of any reporters of the activities or any consequence of Ho Hitter Louisiana Senator Vitter whose wife did a stand by her Ho Hitting man in a tasteful Leopard cocktail dress.

Not one mention of replacing Vitter with a Democratic appointment by the Louisana Governor of course.

So here’s to America the Prescient and their people who are breathlessly following the saga of of Marie Osmond on Dancing with the Stars but have no earthly idea about the Surveillance bill that’s imminent and going to screw their rights to the wall, and bury what the Telcos did and are currently doing to screw them forever.

why America has to be against Venezuela ? and Chavez? why we have to be against Russia ?and Putin ? BECAUSE THE NEOCONS CAN’T PUT THEIR STICKY FINGERS IN THESE COUNTRIES! AND THEY HAVE HYJACKED THE cONGRESS AND wHITE hOUSE ! SHAME !

Why America will Always be an Intrepid Fervent Supporter of Chavez as will their Irrelevant American President the Georgie Bushie.

The Americans will not get off their gas guzzling SUVs. This is despite the fact that 16% of single vehicle accidents in SUVs result in paralyzing C-Spine fractures/or fatalities in one large suvey conducted by an emergency medicine physician hired by the U.S.D.O.T.

Hats off to the liars in the 16 agencies of the American Intelligence community who witheld an N.I.E. for a year which reported Iran has ended it’s quest for nuclear W.M.D.’s while fear mongering through the Bush lying mouth and the Cheney lying mouth pulpit and pushing precisely the opposite as recently as a week ago.

Well, you can if you’re putting your emails through the RNC servers. See? Nothing gets recorded that way and the hard drives can be encased in cement and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. This is how all republic presidents do business. It’s very Mob-like.

I hear Rudy won’t be satisfied with that approach and would have Bernie Kerik put it in the trunk of a car, encase it in concrete and then sink it in the ocean. You know, the way they got rid of all the WTC metal after 9/11, so nobody could determine why it failed.

What is it about Latin America that freaks people out?
Other day I’m at work talking about Chavez and several of my colleagues were almost frothing at the mouth about how “we gotta do something” about him. I have witnessed this with allegedly progressive news people, Keith O comes to mind.
Same with Haiti and, to a lesser extent, Nicaragua since Daniel Ortega regained the presidency.
Yet, these are the same people that believe what we’re doing in Iraq is the crime of the century.
Go figure.

RickinSF:

I’m figuring this. We absolutely are doing something about Chavez. We’re making him damn rich.

The entire US and this administration, contrary to their many lying sound bites (it’s difficult each day to keep up with them all)–Rove’s assertions where he’s caught lying today, or Bush, Cheney, and Rice’s and the puppet mouthpieces Snow and Perino as well as a cast of scores of Republican Congress people on the Iran Nuclear N.I.E.that they lied about for over a year have conducted an energy policy that fully has supported maximum fuel consumption.

We are the largest fuel customer of Hugo Chavez’s Petróleos de Venezuela, the politicized national oil company in Venzuela, and we support and enrich his economy daily.

According to a new Rice University study, 77 percent of the world’s 1.148 trillion barrels of proven reserves is in the hands of the national companies; 14 of the top 20 oil-producing companies are state-controlled.

Chávez recently decreed that Venezuela would take control of fields of heavy oil in the Orinoco Belt, a region southeast of Caracas with so much potential that some experts say it could give the country more reserves than Saudi Arabia.